Webinar: Approaches to the Use of Limited Clinical Material for Oncology Biomarker Study and Characterization

The need for biomarkers or surrogate biomarkers in cancer and other diseases is pressing. Ethical and other issues, however, often limit the amount of material available for bioassay. We therefore developed methodologies appropriate for limited sample sizes deriving from clinical respiratory disease and cancer research. We have characterized a novel approach to this issue using the ProteinSimple's Simple Western™ charge assay run on the NanoPro 1000 capillary-immunoassay instrument. We have developed assays encompassing clinical samples from Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia (CML-SC), Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia (CLL), Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC; tissue & plasma) and Endometrial Cancer. This and other work with Protein Simple has defined the utility of the Simple Western charge assay in detailed mapping of signaling cascades in model systems and cellular organelles. A range of studies across these disease areas are currently ongoing for validation of disease and/or treatment markers in biopsy material and plasma. This includes work designed to extend our knowledge of aberrant post-translational events in human primary disease tissue samples as compared to control material. Furthermore, we have developed protocols for cross-platform analysis of samples to expedite results validation from high-end MS proteomic analysis creating a platform for validation/verification on small samples of clinical material.

Speaker

Dr. Mark Aspinall-O'Dea, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Manchester University